PATH's webpage features an introduction to human trafficking and healthcare, click here to watch informative videos and learn more from the site.
Now available with closed captioning.

Interested in learning more about PATH leadership and involvement? Here are some ideas of how to get started with our welcome packet.

Human Trafficking Prevention Month 2018

January marks Human Trafficking Prevention with February 1st closing out the month as National Freedom Day.

This year PATH/AMWA will increase our efforts to raise awareness and equip healthcare professionals with the skills they need to care for trafficked persons. To mark this important month, this newsletter will be a two part series on news in anti-trafficking advocacy.

Part 1: Looking back on 2017
- Human trafficking and the opioid epidemic
- Our political environment: How congressional disputes over insurance affect trafficked persons

Part 2: Moving Forward
-Human Trafficking and Medical Education
- What can I do? Steps for creating change

We want to hear from you!
How are you working to prevent human trafficking? PATH wants to hear about your work and share your accomplishments in our next newsletter. E-mail Michelle Lyman at melyman@health.usf.edu with pictures and a brief write-up of any anti-trafficking work you've done in your school, clinic, or city.

Coming to a City Near You-
Register now!
The SUSTAIN series is expanding to several cities around the United States in 2018. See below for dates and locations:

If you are interested in attending any of these SUSTAIN events, please e-mail Michelle Lyman at melyman@health.usf.edu for more information on registration and travel scholarships.

About the Newsletter
This is a monthly series in research and advocacy news summaries created by the PATH residents and medical students. Newsletters will feature brief breakdowns on recent scholarly publications and policy changes as well as highlighting PATH member efforts and upcoming events.

Human Trafficking and Medical EducationU.S. medical schools are beginning to recognize the importance of teaching students about human trafficking.

Third year student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Catherine Coughlin, shares her experience introducing anti-trafficking curriculum at her school.

"During my first year of medical school, I learned that most sex trafficking victims encounter a healthcare provider while they are trafficked. Discovering this incredible opportunity for intervention motivated me to spend the summer between my first and second year of medical school writing a curriculum to teach medical students how to recognize victims of sex trafficking.

I spent time with a my mentor and physician expert in sex trafficking, Kanani Titchen, and a lawyer who defends sex trafficking survivors, Lori Cohen, melding medicine and law, statistics and stories. Dr. Titchen and I were invited to teach the curriculum to my medical school class for the past two years!

For months after giving the lecture, I have had fellow students approaching me with questions and sharing how they realize they may have been seeing trafficking victims in their clinical practice. My classmates and I can assist in identifying sex trafficking victims as we practice medicine, and we can teach our future colleagues to recognize the signs, too.

Human trafficking affects hundreds of thousands of people in this country, and we can join the fight against human trafficking as physicians. My experience has affirmed that advocacy and medicine are deeply intertwined, and I vow to continue the fight against sex trafficking for the rest of my career."

Another example of anti-trafficking medical education is the use of simulation, using standardized patient actors to teach students in their clinical years how to respond with trauma-informed care. To read more about the simulation based curriculum PATH member Michelle Lyman worked on, click here.

Do you have a success story to share? We want to hear more about how you have created change. E-mail the editors with 1-2 short paragraphs and any pictures that you would like to share. Look out for future newsletters with examples of PATH members raising awareness of human trafficking.

PATH Spotlight: Alexandra (Sasha) Shumyatsky

Alexandra (Sasha) Shumyatsky is a sophomore at Rutgers University studying Cell Biology and Neuroscience. She is strongly interested in Ob-Gyn and helping eradicate human trafficking. In her free time she enjoys playing tennis, hiking, and writing. Sasha is very excited to help write for PATH and spread knowledge about human trafficking.